Google launches Play Music Family Plan: $15 for 6 people

Back in September, Google announced that Google Play Music, the search giant’s Apple Music and Spotify competitor, was to get a family plan “later this year”. Like with similar service tiers offered by Spotify and Apple Music, Google’s Play Music family plan also helps to separate favorites and music recommendations to keep Kids Bop out of a parent’s personal stream.

In a blog post, the company announced it’ll start taking signups via Android “in the coming days.” People in the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Germany will be able to sign up at launch, with more countries planned for later. Anyone can upload up to 50,000 songs from their personal libraries for free, and they can also buy tracks and albums to download and keep permanently. The family plan allows up to six people on an account to have individual Play Music profiles, maintaining their own libraries, recommendations, playlists, and listening history.

And as a way to compensate for its relatively late entry into the market, Google is offering early adopters a subscription price of 49.99 rand a month ($3.50) until Jan. 26. Why this matters: While Play Music on its own may not be compelling enough for those who prefer Spotify or Apple Music, the inclusion of YouTube Red could tip the scales. For $15 per month everyone in your family group can have their own streaming account and the ability to save YouTube videos offline and avoid YouTube ads. Spotify, the leading streaming music service, charges more for its family plan, but has conceded that it will eventually match the price being offered by both Apple and Google.

That’s on top of rumors that Spotify will soon allow select artists to stream their music exclusively on its paid subscription tier, which could go a long way in solving the problem of major albums showing up on competing services first. The increasing availability of such streaming services, albeit primarily in South Africa, is a recognition by tech firms of the business viability of mobile in Africa, especially of users with smartphones. As Quartz has reported before, estimates suggest millions of smartphones are being shipped in Africa and by 2019, more than 70% of mobile phones on the continent will be smartphones.